<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm a freshman at a small private school. I'm in electrical engineering taking the classes laid out for me (calc, chem, physics, intro to ee etc.) My first semester gpa was a 3.7 but this semester I'm not doing nearly as well. I was wondering what an average gpa is for engineering students. In high school I had a 4.0 so I'm not used to this gpa drop, it's stressing me out. Any insight on gpa would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Do the best you can, and then you’ll eventually settle on a number that feels right for you.</p>
<p>In my opinion, your GPA doesn’t matter much in college as long as you get A’s and B’s, and maybe only a couple C’s. </p>
<p>College is much more difficult than high school. As long as you graduate and get your degree in engineering, you’ll be able to find challenging engineering work out there.</p>
<p>I have to agree with the above. College is much more difficult than high school, and the grades you get won’t make as much difference. I found that my school’s reputation carried a lot of weight, more so than my GPA.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the GPA (but do worry if you aren’t understanding the material).</p>
<p>I would not take that advice. You have to worry about your GPA. It is what will keep you motivated to succeed. Lets be honest, the job market is very competitive right now (by the time you graduate hopefully the economy will be much better) but nevertheless, it will be much more difficult for you upon graduation if your GPA is subpar (for admissions to grad school or finding a job).</p>
<p>I’ve seen threads on here asking if a GPA below 3.0 is acceptable. My response would be probably not. Everyone realizes engineering is tough but anything below a 3.0 to me says that this person is likely a slacker. Now before someone says well I know someone who graduated with a 2.5 and now they are really sucessful, I realize that this is possible. My point is that you shoud strive to do better than your classmates. I know that you can’t judge someone completely based on their GPA, but I do have to say that if someone is towards the bottom of their class, I’m going to question what type of employee they will be. Moreover, are there more important things in life than GPA? Yes. Does this mean you shouldn’t worry about your grades? Absolutely not.</p>
<p>it’s very hard to keep up with a 4.0 GPA in college even if you had a UW 4.0 in Highschool. it’s much more competitive. some A students in HS will become B students in college. that’s just how it is. not everyone can get A right? but if you care about getting your high GPA, then by all means go for it. it’s a matter of priority. some ppl like higher GPA some ppl like to use their time to explore life and college do other stuff. while they might not have high GPA but some of them still got pretty decent grades and enjoyed college life… that’s not too bad right?</p>
<p>Just wondering what kind of gpa does it take to get into top grad schools like MIT, Cal and Stanford?</p>
<p>@ exe163
this girl from my school got into MIT, Cal, Stanford, Princeton and Cal Tech with a ~3.6 GPA BUT she had tons of research work and around a ~1450 GRE i believe.
she’s a chemE</p>
<p>According to one of my Gen Chem grade distribution from last year the average was around a 2.4 GPA. My guess is that the average for most classes would be similar to that. So a Freshman Average GPA should be roughly 2.3-2.7.</p>
<p>Some schools will not even admit you into the last 2 years of the undergraduate engineering program unless you have a 3.0+…so at least for the first two years, it would be wise to get a 3.0+ GPA.</p>
<p>Now as far as graduating, of course you want to aim high as you can but you won’t be jobless with a sub-3.0 GPA.</p>
<p>As far as graduate school admission, the GPA requirement (to me) kind of goes down with the more job experience you have. If you are coming straight out of undergrad, you better have a 3.0-3.25 GPA + good GRE + recommendations, etc. If you decide to go for a UNFUNDED part-time graduate program and have 7-10 years experience already, you can get into graduate school (not Top-10, but #11-#20+) with a sub 3.0 and in some cases not a GRE. Some of that depends on the school and the relationship your employer (if paying for your tuition) has with the school.</p>
<p>With Top-10 schools (Cornell, MIT, etc), they probably will not allow “alternative paths” for graduate school admissions outside of a 3.5+ GPA, with a kick a*s GRE + Recs + Activities.</p>